Rainbow Six: Vegas

[Tanthalos]

I am looking for some honest opinions here.
I topic searched this game and basically found threads that fall into 3 categories.
1. ZOMG this game is so awesome (for when it was first released)
2. COD4 vs Vegas: Steel Cage Death Match for who is most awesome!
3. ZOMG R6:V2 is on its way will it be awesome?!

Now that Vegas 2 can step into the arena and face off against Call of Duty 4 in the "Who is better?" eternal debate.
Also now that the excitement and bias has been shifted to Vegas 2 because it is newer I have some questions.
Assume for a minute that I have never played a full level of a Tom Clancy game before.

1. Will I need 3 years military experience in order to know how to organize my squad to open the front door? (Some of the Xbox ones my boss had me try were very complicated.)
2. How complex are the controls?
3. How easy to learn and how useable is the covering system?
4. How intellegent are my fellow squad mates? (Are they competent, semi-competent, bricks, dim, or brain damaged)
5. How accessable is the customization of weapons, armor etc?

Plus people's general impressions of any problems the game has would be appreciated.

 

[killhour]

Hate to disappoint you, but I just got R6:V2 a few days ago (for the PS3). Game play wise, it's very simple. At any point in time, you can tell your team to do 6 things (3 infiltration, 3 assault). 4 of these things are always either "Blow shit up" or "Cover my movements" (always using grenades of some type or breach charges). The other two can consist of "Go there... no THERE! Goddamnit, you guys are idiots", "Use the scripted rope/door/ass-vibrator", and "Bring up the ultra accurate thermal imaging map that gives the positions of every bad guy in the level, yet is somehow completely useless."

Your 'special' moves consist of "Look under doors", "Blow shit up", and "Hang upside down while getting shot at".

The single player levels are extremely linear (the terrorist hunt ones are better in this respect), but in the end, you have to kill every single terrorist. There is no sneaking, no non-lethal takedowns, just "Kill those guys". There is almost no tactical value to the game, except making sure you killed everything within a 3km radius. If you fail to do this, you will get sniped in the face with a shotgun by a foot soldier on the other side of the map (This is while you're hiding behind a 3 foot thick concrete wall, since bullet penetration treats everything as paper). To balance it out, your teammates are made of some magical ether that can float through walls and be revived by sticking them in the arm/foot/floor-three-feet-away with a mysterious needle.

Bottom line - The game plays like MoH, minus the health bar (and looks like it too).

 

[Jawless]

Hate to disappoint you, but I just got R6:V2 a few days ago (for the PS3). Game play wise, it's very simple. At any point in time, you can tell your team to do 6 things (3 infiltration, 3 assault). 4 of these things are always either "Blow shit up" or "Cover my movements" (always using grenades of some type or breach charges). The other two can consist of "Go there... no THERE! Goddamnit, you guys are idiots", "Use the scripted rope/door/ass-vibrator", and "Bring up the ultra accurate thermal imaging map that gives the positions of every bad guy in the level, yet is somehow completely useless."

Your 'special' moves consist of "Look under doors", "Blow shit up", and "Hang upside down while getting shot at".

The single player levels are extremely linear (the terrorist hunt ones are better in this respect), but in the end, you have to kill every single terrorist. There is no sneaking, no non-lethal takedowns, just "Kill those guys". There is almost no tactical value to the game, except making sure you killed everything within a 3km radius. If you fail to do this, you will get sniped in the face with a shotgun by a foot soldier on the other side of the map (This is while you're hiding behind a 3 foot thick concrete wall, since bullet penetration treats everything as paper). To balance it out, your teammates are made of some magical ether that can float through walls and be revived by sticking them in the arm/foot/floor-three-feet-away with a mysterious needle.

Bottom line - The game plays like MoH, minus the health bar (and looks like it too).

Sounds like fun.

 

[killhour]

Sounds like fun.

Don't get me wrong, it IS fun... just not in the way a tactical shooter should be.

This sums it up pretty well:

http://www.megamers.com/playstation3/review.php?game_category=8&article_id=2620

 

[Tanthalos]

I actually am looking for something lighter and a bit simpler.
R6:V2 leans towards this more than R6:V?

 

[Janus Vesta]

I actually am looking for something lighter and a bit simpler.
R6:V2 leans towards this more than R6:V?

It's basically a copy-pasta of R6:V. The squad members are now smarter (they gained 2 IQ points, making a grand total of 5 IQ points). They are crack shots and can clear a room very quickly. Also there is a new casual mode to help you learn the fast-ropes (I made a funny).

 

[Tanthalos]

Thanks for the imput guys between what I heard here and Angry Ranter's review (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.56488) I have decided to get the game.

Sucks that it is not the type of game the strategists are use to but sounds like it is pretty much what I am looking for.

 

[BonsaiK]

The Rainbow Six series is a joke now, a pathetic shadow of its former self. The Vegas games are still kinda fun in a fairy-floss kind of way but in terms of playability and stability it can't compete with the many other fairy-floss shooters on the market now. If Ubi had continued on the series' original "hardcore realism" path which was what made the series successful in the first place (the first Rainbow 6 game was the first FPS ever to have an expanding reticule), the Vegas games would be brilliant... but sadly Ubi dropped the ball on this series and will probably never pick it up again because they're too busy trying to appeal to the action audience. Why they want Rainbow to be a small fish in a big pond rather than a big fish in a small one I'm not sure but whatever, I guess they figure there's more money in it. It's pretty sad that these days some third-party mods for Half-Life are more realistic than the franchise that practically invented FPS realism. The last truly decent Rainbow game was Raven Shield, I wouldn't waste my time with anything after that.

Oh, and I hope you like bugs. Because Ubi like them too.

 

[Tanthalos]

What types of bugs? Which modes are they located in?

Are they bugs involving trying ot connect to multiplayer matches, maps etc?
Or are they bugs in the levels of single player mode?

 

[BonsaiK]

It's a Ubi game - it almost goes without saying that there are bugs all over the place. Ubi seemingly enjoy releasing product in a half-finished state. The bugs involve connectivity issues, display issues, sound problems, graphical glitches - you name it. Both singleplayer and multiplayer are affected. This game is a mess. Read up on it - carefully - before buying.

To answer your questions in the OP:

1. No, it's very easy. You'll be quickly wishing it was MORE complicated because it gets boring.
2. Same as any other shooter.
3. The cover system, while hardly realistic, is very intuitive and probably the best thing about the game. Sadly it breaks multiplayer adversarial modes, but it's great for co-op tango hunt or singleplayer.
4. Pretty stupid. Better than Vegas 1 but not by much.
5. Fine.

All the above five points would be fine if there weren't a whole raft of other problems with the game that myself and others have already outlined. Ubi need to sell the Rainbow franchise to someone who can make a proper Rainbow game - something Ubi clearly aren't interested in.

 

[devilondemand]

I picked up a copy of the first Vegas game super cheap the other day and I think I made the right choice. Granted, that one is still pretty buggy but it doesn't sound as bad as the sequel.